After ZTE revealed its plan to establish a factory in Indonesia last month, Oppo is reportedly preparing to do pretty much the same. The factory, which is planned to start operating in March 2015, aims to produce 500 thousands Oppo devices per month to be distributed in the Indonesian market. This decision becomes another expansion plan made by phone manufacturers, after Samsung, Haier, and Evercoss previously generated the same idea.
According to report by Kompas (30/10), PT Indonesia Oppo Electronic’s CEO Jet Lee mentioned that the factory is going to be located in Tangerang and will start producing 500 thousands devices per month by March 2015. He said, “The factory’s capacity would reach 500,000 devices in a month. It is specially designed to meet Indonesian market’s demands,” Lee told Kompas.
The decision wasn’t made to merely follow the trend. In fact, ever since its breakthrough in 2012, Oppo has enjoyed positive responses from Indonesian consumers. According to an internal data, Oppo successfully covers 6% of Indonesian market with around 200 thousands units get sold per month. Unfortunately, the information didn’t specify which model enjoying the best popularity.
This is a good sign for Indonesia, particularly because it shows that the new Indonesian government has a commitment to build Indonesia. Oppo has made its plan public ever since last March, but it still waited for the regulators’ positive responses.
To realize this project, Oppo is reportedly ready to spend $30 million (around Rp 364 billion). This much capital is required particularly because besides focusing on the operational activities, Oppo also plans to recruit more local talents despite the fact that it has hired no less than 5000 local employees so far.
Interestingly, it seems that Oppo wouldn’t be the last international manufacturer to do such movement. According to a survey by GfK, the growth of smartphone and phablet sales in Southeast Asia looks really promising. A local factory would help more companies reducing their cost of production to fulfill demands in the area.
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